The No. 43 Harvard men’s tennis team remained perfect in the Ivies with wins over Princeton and Penn this weekend, setting up a showdown with Brown—the only other undefeated Ivy team—for the league championship on Friday.

The Crimson (15-8, 5-0 Ivy) has now won eight straight after defeating Princeton by the narrowest of margins, 4-3, last Friday before cruising to a 6-1 triumph over Penn the next day.

Harvard travels to New Haven, Conn. to face Yale on Wednesday prior to its confrontation with the Bears at home. Much like the women’s tennis team, who clinched its Ivy championship this weekend in front of an enthusiastic Crimson crowd, the men are hoping for a large show of support.

“We’re trying to get a lot of people to come out,” co-captain Oli Choo said. “Last year, the match was at Brown and they had hundreds of people there.”

Harvard 6, Penn 1

Harvard had little trouble besting the Quakers even after its No. 1 doubles team of sophomore Jonathan Chu and junior Chris Chiou fell 8-3 to start the day. The Crimson won the other two doubles matches, including the first-time pairing of co-captain David Lingman and sophomore Jason Beren, to take the point and stake a 1-0 lead.

Beren ultimately had the only Crimson singles loss, falling in the fifth slot to Todd Lecher 6-4, 7-6 (2). The rest of the lineup won in straight sets, with the exception of junior George Turner’s three-set comeback win, 5-7, 6-4, 1-0(6), at No. 4.

Junior Cliff Nguyen sealed the Harvard win with an easy 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 3.

Penn was the Crimson’s first match of the spring season to be held outdoors. Harvard appreciated the fresh air, especially since outdoor play features a slower tempo, with longer points and greater difficulty controlling ball placement.

“It was good to be outdoors,” Choo said. “Assuming that the matches are outside this week, it was good to get that experience.”

Harvard 4, Princeton 3

The Tigers proved to be a much greater challenge for the Crimson, who found itself in a precarious position. Harvard was down 3-2 with Chu still playing at No. 2 and Turner slugging it out at No. 5.

Chu had lost the first set of his match against Darius Craton but battled back to knot the match at one-all. In the third set, Craton broke Chu to make the score 5-4, held serve to tie the score at five and had double break point against the Crimson sophomore.

“The good thing about the Princeton match was that it tested us on the road in a pretty tough environment,” Choo said. “It was really close and gives us confidence that we can win those matches.”

The Tiger crowd was loudly cheering for Craton, but Chu managed to hold serve, going up 6-5 before breaking Craton for the win.